THEME HOSPITAL
================================================================================
================
By Andy Townsend(???)
================================================================================
================
HOSPITAL CURES:
Running a hospital isn't as you might belive.When patients aren't literally
dying to be seen,they're puking in the corridors.To make your management tasks a
bit easier,I've come up with plenty of pointers to ensure success.
IN THE BEGINNING...
You can't very well build a compitive hospital if your'e rushed.The facility
will be run by quacks,and the patients will drop like flies.The first and most
important thing to do at the beginning of the level is press [L1] to set the
speed to the slowest possible pace.This will give you as much time as you want
to get the layout right.You'll then open at approximately the halfway
stage,giving you a jump start against the opposition.
Once the hospital is built,hire two receptionists with desks.While this may not
appear to be absolutely essential at the start,as the queue of people builds
up,it gets harder to cope with just one receptionist-ther might not even be
enough room in the lobby for another desk.
Also,it's always good to have two GP offices in the beginning-as the volume of
patients increases,you'll want another GP near the enterance.If you started with
only one,you won't have enough space left for another when needed.
Next,take 20% of the research funds out of specialization and put it in
diagnosis,because you need specialization only you've found a disease that you
don't know how to cure.However,in true catch-22 fashion,you won't be able to
find many incurable diseases if the diagnosis equipment isn't good enough.
TIP:Build as many rooms as possible in the beginning so that you get the best
position early on-you don't always think straight with a full hospital.You may
need a loan,but don't worry-as long as you don't go too far into debt,you'll
survive.
You'll want to hire a lot of doctors and nurses at the beginning,too,so that you
can cope with the patient increase.Althugh it's generally better to increase
staff at the same percentage rate as the patients increase,it can be pretty
tough-you have to be particu;arly wary of increases because when they happen
slowly,they can deceve you into thinking that there's no trouble.By hiring
plenty of staff in the first place,by the time you're near the breaking point
and wildly in debt the hospital starts making money and bails you out just in
the nick of time.However,this stragity isn't nearly as successful in the later
levels.
It's always best to build your most-used rooms toward the front of your hospital
so that patients will be able to check in and then be diagnosed right away.You
should also put the
GP's office,toilets,and pharmacy in the same vincity because they're the most
commonly used rooms,especially in freak epidemics.
Place an accessory in every room,except for plants-they take extra time to look
after.For example,put a computer in a reasearch room,and a skeleton and bookcase
in a traning room.
TIP:When building an operating theater,always have your surgions ready before
you build the room.
Build a traning room and train doctors while the hospital is quiet-trained
doctors are cheaper than the ones bought at the same skill level.You'll
definitaly want to ues a good consulant for the traning.He'll pass on his skills
to his pupils,but only if they learn them before becoming consulants-it's not
possible to train consulants in new skills.
Make sure you have enough surgeons-use four if you have one operating
theater.Have plenty of benches and drink machines in busy areas.
NOTE:A drink machine pays for itself when its used 25 times.
Research definatly helps on the larger levels.Build a research room early
on,with enough space for later additions.Also,always have more than one
researcher in your reasearch room-this speeds up the research considerably.
In a really busy hospital,queues can get quite large,so set your queue size for
each room betweeen six and eight.You should avoid queues larger than that
because large queues make
patients who are sick wait longer.When that happens,they'll die or become
disgusted and leave (either way,it ain't pretty)
If a patient is sick and close to dying,either take a chance on a possible cure
or send him home.Whatever you do,don't let him die on the hospital grounds.It's
better to send away a potential patient than to have him die and scare off dozen
others
In any room with equipment that can be damaged,always have an
extinguisher.They're lifesavers after an earthquake or equipment
overuse,especially when you're off tending a buiser part of the hospital.Never
let the Damage bar drop down past the one-quater mark or start to smoke-it can
cause problems to your machine and equipment.If somthing blows up in a
room,it'll kill
all the occupants,and you won't be able to delete or edit the room
TIP:Put two or more extinguishers in a room to cut the risk of explosions
The size of your staff room and research room should should always be 8x8.If you
have a big staff or a lot of researchers,there'll be plenty of room for them to
move around with ease.Also,this leaves room to place computers or an atom
analyszer when you get them(or if you already have them)
When buying new lots,always buy the closest and biggest one first-it'll hold
more new buildings.The smaller rooms are good as less-used rooms that don't need
much attention,such as
the traning room or research room
MANAGING YOUR STAFF:
Be on the lookout for better staff,and don't hesitate to replace existing staff
by hiring new,better workers.Your old staff won't hold grudges,sue for wrongful
termanation,or become
crazed,gun-wielding wackos.
Tired employees make for an unprofitable hospital.However,you can do a number of
things to reduce this.
*Use large rooms with all the accessories.This will stop the staff from getting
demoralized,
and they won't tire as quickly.
*Block off unused parts of the building with benches to prevent handymen from
wandering around them and getting cold-they'll become demoralized and want pay
raises.Consider blocking an area with a facility,such as a staff room or
toilet,if you aren't allowed to block an area off with benches.
*Place large staff rooms at either end of hospital so that your employees have
the shortest tire time possible.Have a pool table,TV,and video game when they're
available-they help increasse the speed of recuperation.
*Manually take any staff out of a room when they aren't doing anything.Not only
will they tire less quickly,they'll immediately go to any room in witch they're
needed.Send personnel to the staff room when they reach 40% tiredness.
Being overstaffed is alwaysbetter than being understaffed.However,don't just
hire a bunch of quacks so that you have enough staff.
TIP:If your staff starts to get low on morale,a bonus is a great and surefire
way to perk them back up (gust like in real life).
Always have at least three handymen running around your hospital,cleaning and
watering plants.
More is better.
When building your tranining room,put in a bookcase and skeleton to speed up the
traning.The same rule applies to the psychiatrist's room.Make sure you have a
computer and atom analyser
in your reasharch room.This speeds up the time it takes to make improvements.
HANDLING EMERGENCIES:
The first thing to do when you have an emergency is see how many people there
are and what treatment will be needed.If you have one of each treatment,you'll
be able to cure six to eight people at the pharmacy (or at a basic place such as
the slack-tongue clinic),six people at the psychiatrist,and up to four people at
the operating theater.If the number of emergency pateints exceeds this
capacity,you have two options:you can refuse to treat them,or you can send a
certain number of them home.You'll still get credit for the ones you treated,and
if no one dies on the hospital grounds,you'll still get bonus funds at the end
of the year for not killing anyone.
If the treatment room is close to the helipad,you can increase the number of
patients you can treat,but if it is farther away,you should reduce the
number.Also,the better your doctor or nurse is,the quicker they'll be.After a
while,you should be a good gudge of what you can or cannot handle.
When an emergency requires you to remove two spare ribs from two different
people,always have more than the required surgeons (at least three or four
because your surgeons might be off doing other business when the emergency
hits).
Avoid handling emergencies when you're bogged down with a busy hospital.If you
fail,Your reputation is dented,and you lose that potential cash bonus.
COPING WITH AN EPIDEMIC:
There are two main ways to handle an epidemic-the first way may not win you any
points with the department of health,but it works fairly soundly,especially if
you're running low on cash.
*Set the speed of the game on [L1] as soon as there's word of an epidemic.You
can see what it is and then try a cover-up.Scan the entire hospital and send
home anyone who has the contagious disease.Then,all you can do is pray.While
this stragtegy doesn't always work,it works often enough to make it worthwhile.
NOTE:Killing rats decreases the number of epidemics.
*If worse comes to worst,you could try to cure the epidemic patients.If you have
the available
machines to do it,this strategy works quite well (granted that you have an
efficiently run
hospital and the available staff).
One other method (a cheat really) is to find out what the disease is when you
have an epidemic,and then reload a saved game and kick everyone with the disease
out.Because the emergencies that arise are set inhto the level files,you'll get
the same disease.However,because no one in your hospital has it,you won't need
to cure anyone (and you'll receive compensation).
MAINTAINING MACHINES:
Regularly page handymen to maintain your machines.Leave a gap of five or six
between Strength
and Times before you have the machine maintained.Whenever there's an eartquake
warning,check all the machines to make sure they aren't close to the end-an
earthquake can add up to six uses onto a machine,which may destroy it.In an
emergency,replace the machine,just to be safe.
RATS!!!
There are two ways to deal with rats.First,you can simply ignore them and let
them go about their business.They should have little effect on your
reputation.Second,you can kill as many as you can,witch will give you a chance
at winning that rat prize and going to the secret level.If you chose this second
method,predd [L1] as soon as you see a rat so that they are easy to hit.If
you've killed them indoors,put a handyman over their dead bodies so that people
don't throw up when they see their festering carcasses.As mentiond
earlier,there's some incentive to killing rats-it seems to reduce the number of
epidemics.
FAMOUS PEOPLE:
Whenever someone famous wants to visit,always let them,unless you're doing
absolutely pitful.
It's very hard not to get their approval-you'll usually be given a cash
grant.When they come,you at least get money and a rep boost.VIPs always look for
cleanliness,radiators (heat),fire extinguishers,how nice your hospital looks,how
happy your and patients are,and how advanced your equipment is.If you shrug off
VIPs too often,they'll show up unexpectedly,which
is not a good thing,especially during a vomit wave or when you're in a slump.
MISCELLANY:
Keep in mind that patients will pay you in one of two ways.You get paid either
by the patient directly or by the patient's insurance company.If the patient
pays directly,the charge will be credited to your balance and appear on your
statement immediatly.If the patient uses an insurance company,the insurers will
not pay you immediatly.Although the insurance payment will
show up as money Money Earned on the casebook screen,it will not appear on your
balance or your statement until the insurance company finally pays up.
Litter bombs are very expensive-$5,000 isn't chump change after all (you could
buy two rooms with that amount).So,if you choose to buy them,make sure that you
don't waste them on a poorly planned idea.It's also best to buy only one at a
time,unless you have plenty of money.
================================================================================
================
Some of this stuff isn't on the PlayStation version of Theme-Hospital,but,who
needs a liter bomb anyway.
Also,this is my first FAQ ever to rite!!!Oh,and one more thing,does anybody know
my E-mail address :???@?????????.???:...Ahh,I got you BIG TIME!!!
================================================================================
================
